Cookie Run: Kingdom's Bountiful Appeal
Thursday, 28th of April 2022, 10:44 +02:00
Last September, something started rumbling and tumbling in South Korea. Devsisters' YouTube channel had been teasing it for weeks. Cookie Run: Kingdom - the first auto-battler featuring the well-known casual game IP - had its most important update as of yet to be released soon! None of it was a lie. The game more than tripled its run rate in the months that followed. Worldwide revenue for Q4 2021 | Source: Sensor Tower Since March 2021, the game had been enjoying big success in South Korea, the birthplace of the Cookie Run franchise. Although it had been downloadable worldwide since then, the game only gained popularity in Japan and the US half a year later. ...
2021's Merge Mayhem
Monday, 13th of December 2021, 18:48 +01:00
It's the end of the year, which means we're reflecting on the times that have passed to make plans for the times ahead. In the same manner, a year ago, while helping out with Deconstructor of Fun's Puzzle Game predictions I wrote about Metacore's Merge Mansion: "While the game is showing to have some challenges to expand its board in the long term, numerous other studios are quickly catching up with their own version of this highly engaging loop. 2021 will show who will come out victorious." At Voodoo Berlin we have been one of those studios; having worked harder than ever to lift Plantopia towards the top of the Merge charts, and what a journey it's been. Meanwhile I've been keeping a cl...
Space Ape didn't miss a Beat
Monday, 24th of May 2021, 23:23 +02:00
It's February 2021, the world is in the middle of the longest lockdown we've ever experienced and it's been about a year since we've gone out to dance. I -an avid fan of Space Ape Games' work and game development philosophy- discover their new game in my Play Store. The app icon is unconventional, as it just shows the word 'BEATSTAR' instead of a graphical representation of its gameplay, which intrigues me as a game designer who is used to seeing Hypercasual icons fly by. I'd call myself a respectable rhythm gamer, having spent thousands of hours in Guitar Hero back in the day, but a mobile rhythm game is new to me. Curiously I open the app and find something even better than what I was hopi...
Joining Mobile's Most Exclusive Members Club
Monday, 30th of November 2020, 14:45 +01:00
About a year after the term 'HybridCasual' was first coined, an ever-increasing number of professionals in the mobile games industry are acknowledging its existence. Even so much that it might seem to start sounding a wee bit empty, hollow. A buzzword at best. On one side this is logical since it's a rather elusive term with a specific history behind it, as has been aptly deliberated by Will Freeman last July. On the other side it's not entirely helpful, as the term will only become increasingly fluffy and meaningless this way. Since we are currently exploring this direction at Voodoo as well, and as a fervent rectifier of things ranging from grammar to whether Mountain Goats are actually ...
Sorting ourselves out
Saturday, 16th of May 2020, 18:13 +02:00
What do someone whispering from very close into a microphone and a jigsaw puzzle have in common? Regardless if none, one or both of the above videos are your cup of tea, there is a similarity that can be used to answer that initial question. Believe it or not, it actually boils down to one of life's (if not most) important questions; "What is Happiness?". Okay, this might seem like a bit of a jump, so given the context, let's rewind and put this into a little more perspective by using an example related to mobile game development: Merge games. Merge Dragons, by Gram Games To Merge or not to Merge Merge games have existed for a long tim...
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